The dog Buck and Derrick Hancock met in 2018. The man was a soldier who then lived in Fort Hood, Texas (United States) and that gray-furred Pit Bull, day after day, entered his heart.
The American army had sent them away on a mission to Iraq, sending them away. The man had entrusted his beloved dog to the care of his then girlfriend, but one day the woman called him to tell him that Buck had died: the girl explained to him that the four-legged dog had gotten loose during a walk and that the local control agents animals had to catch him and put him down because he had attacked a cat.
A blow to the heart for the soldier who considered the Pit Bull like a son since the day he adopted him from an animal shelter in Killeen. As often happens, only time can help heal the wounds of feelings, but fate had decided another ending for Hancock: only in recent days, at the end of September, did the man discover the shocking truth.
The turning point in this incredible story occurred when Melanie Rathke, co-founder of the non-profit Texas Critter Crusaders (TCC), came across a Pit Bull found wandering in the street on September 22nd and decided to take care of him. As she always does, the woman posted photos of Sebastian, as she called him, on social media in the hope of finding his owner.
That post attracted a lot of attention, including that of a veterinarian who proposed to check whether that dog had a microchip. Thanks to this small gesture of kindness, Rathke discovered that that dog had a name, Buck, but above all an owner who wasn’t looking for him because he thought he was dead.
The woman found the man on social media and when she sent him a message she received a response that left no doubt about her desire to have the dog back: “Oh my God, I thought he was dead” Private Hancock replied in all capital letters , who now lives in Virginia.
Beyond the abandonment of the soldier’s ex-girlfriend, it is not clear where Buck lived all this time, but according to Rathke someone in the neighborhood had taken care of the animal even if they had not welcomed him into their home. “I always tell people, ‘If your pet has been implanted with a chip, never lose hope,'” she said.
Now Buck has been found a foster family waiting to solve the logistical problems of transporting Buck from Texas to Virginia, but now it’s a matter of time: “He will be here with me again – Hancock said still in disbelief -. We will be together again and we can truly be a family.”
